-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Now , this just may be the best entertainment news of the summer .

It has nothing to do with movie blockbusters . They 're coming , as they always do when the weather gets warm : the mass-produced , mind-deadening barrage of predictable sequels , computer-generated explosions and space battles , dreary comedies about groups of wacky buddies , and high-decibel car chase after high-decibel car chase .

Which is what makes what happened on a recent Saturday afternoon in Granite Falls , Minnesota , population 2,897 , so delightful .

A one-day musical theater production was presented that had taken three months to write , rehearse and produce .

It took place along an eight-mile stretch of the Minnesota River .

More than 200 people attended .

And that entire audience was in canoes .

For three hours , they paddled from scene to scene .

`` The river was the real star of the show , '' said Andrew Gaylord , 33 , of St. Paul , Minnesota , who wrote the play and the music for it , and who co-directed it with his producing partner , Ashley Hanson , 29 . He said that their intention was to honor and salute the concept of community and place : to provide for their audience an afternoon of entertainment that they could n't possibly find anywhere else .

In dreaming up the idea and getting it done -- putting the audience in those canoes , and having them paddle to each of the six scenes in the play along the eight miles of water -- Gaylord and Hanson may have displayed more sheer ingenuity and grin-inducing creativity than you 'll find in any dozen movie-multiplex blockbusters in the months ahead .

The play was called `` With the Future on the Line , '' and it told the story of how three Western Minnesota River Valley communities , in the late 1800s , competed to become the county seat . The Minnesota River , though , was without question the leading character , `` with its slow meanders and brutally carved banks , with its fish jumping , turtles sunbathing , eagles soaring , and pelicans taxiing , '' in Gaylord 's words .

There was a cast of 34 , all volunteer amateur actors , and a crew of nearly 100 . The scenes took place in six locales along the river ranging from an island to a small bluff overlooking the water ; from a campground on the water 's edge to a beautiful meadow . The audience would paddle up in their canoes -LRB- there were 18 10-person canoes , plus smaller canoes that just sort of tagged along -RRB- ; the audience would sit right there in those canoes and watch the actors play the scene on the shore . Then some of the actors would race ahead in cars to the next location so that they would arrive before the canoes did .

`` For me , this was 100 % about the celebration of community , '' Ashley Hanson told me . `` We keep being told that , all over the country , the traditional sense of community is being fragmented , is disappearing . That 's why it felt so good to put such a tremendous amount of work into something so ephemeral . Something magical that is there for one day only . ''

She and Gaylord are new at this ; they have formed a theater company in St. Paul they call PlaceBase Productions , in the hopes of presenting community-specific shows like this around the nation . They received some financial underwriting for the Granite Falls endeavor from Minnesota organizations devoted to the betterment of life along the river , but on the subject of making enough money doing this to support themselves , `` we 're still kind of trying to figure that out , '' Gaylord said with a laugh .

Like the rest of us , Gaylord has sat in movie theaters and witnessed that annoying glow as people in row after row check their cellphone screens for messages even while the film is playing . He said one of the nicest parts of the Paddling Theatre -LRB- that 's what he and Hanson called it -RRB- afternoon was that `` I did n't see anyone yakking in their canoes -- I did n't see them on the phone . They seemed like they did n't want to be anywhere else in the world than where they were at that moment . ''

No professional theater critics attended the production , but outdoors writer Tom Cherveny of the West Central Tribune in nearby Willmar , Minnesota , watched the entire show from a canoe . I asked him what he thought , both of the day and of the performance . `` It was great , '' he said . `` It really did work . ''

There was something I kept thinking about as I spoke with Gaylord and Hanson , and I hoped they would n't be offended if I brought it up , because I meant it as a compliment .

One of my favorite movies is `` Waiting for Guffman , '' Christopher Guest 's sardonic yet ultimately hopeful 1997 comedy about the fictional small town of Blaine , Missouri , and its against-all-odds attempt to put on a one-day musical for the town 's 150th birthday . What happened in Granite Falls felt a little like Guffman-with-paddles , and I wanted to know if that had occurred to Gaylord and Hanson .

'' ` Guffman ' is my battle cry , '' Ashley Hanson said . `` Not the comical elements in it , but the sweetness .

`` The importance of making the effort . The sense of sincerity , of caring for a community .

`` That 's what fuels me . Getting people excited about where they 're from . Reminding them of why it matters . Because it does . ''

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Bob Greene .

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Bob Greene : A theater troupe put on a play at various spots along 8 miles of Minnesota River

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He says audience travels to scenes by canoe , pulls up to bank to watch from the river

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He says creators of play want to deliver a sense of place to audiences

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Greene : Like `` Waiting for Guffman , '' play celebrates community sweetly , sincerely